Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Older Cartridges

Yep, .303 Savage kills stuff. I too like 190's but don't give a hoot if anybody makes jacketed ones or not. Have bullet mold, problem solved - endless supply that costs virtually nothing. Drive them at the same velocities achieved with jacketed 190's in the .303 Savage (and .30-30 for that matter) - 1900fps out of 20" barrels, 2000+fps out of 24"ers.

After bowhunting for 50 years, I've come to the conclusion I can kill deer, with almost any gun in my safe.

"Older" can mean different things to different people. I suppose ALL my hunting rifles fire "older" cartridges as compared to many today.
What year of introduction would constitute "newer"?
My newest one is the 6.8 SPC, which is now about 19 years old. I give it very high marks, but it's in the same league as the old 1920s load for the 257 Roberts as far as velocity and bullet weight, but having the advantage of a larger diameter bullet. I have killed 34 antelope and deer with it and have been quite impressed.

My current older than I am cartridges are:

My 303 British (1888)
My 30-30 (1895)
My 6.5X54 M/S (1900)
My 9.3X57s (1900)
My 9.3X74R (1900)
My 8x57 JS (1904)
My9.3X62 (1905)
My 404 Jeffery (1905)
My 30-06s (1906)
My 35 Remington (1908)
My 375H&H (1912)
My 300 Savages (1920)
My 270 Winchesters (1925)
My 300 H&H (1925)
My 308s (1952)


Other older cartridges I have owned and used with success were the 6.5 Swede, 7X57, 257 Roberts, 30-40 Krag, 348 Winchester, 7.5 Swiss, 7.65 Belgian, 7MM Weatherby, 7X61 Sharp and Hart, 8X68S, 45-70, 50-140 Sharps, 43 Spanish, 11X60 Mauser,

Guns in calibers I have now or have owned and used in the past that are my age (or younger then I am) are the 243 Winchester, the 6MM Remington 7MM Remington Mag, 280 Remington, the 25-06 Remington, the 270 Win Short Mag, the 30-378 Weatherby mag, 44 Magnum, 41 Magnum 458 Winchester, the 338 Winchester, the 338-06,


And I am sure I have forgotten a few here too.

If we want to speak about REALLY old, I'd include flintlock muzzleloaders (Circa 1745 to 1770) in 50 cal, 54 cal, and 62 cal, and cap-lock muzzleloaders (circa 1825 to 1863) in 54, and 58 calibers.

So when we speak of "older" what does that really mean?

Between the 6.8 SPC and the 270 WSM as my newest (2003) and the 11MM Mauser, (1871) I am sure all would agree they are "younger and older".

But what year is the line between the two?

1969 ain't old!

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I agree.

But how about 1952? Is that old?

But how about 1952? Is that old?[/quote]

Some days it is but most days it's not. I thought 70 was the new 40 LOL

‘52 is mature 1925 is old. Glad I could clear that up for you!

An early 1900's 8 mm via a Erfurt Mauser is about as old as I have.

Newest cartridge I shoot is 7-08 , a lot (most) of what I shoot is either hard to find or obsolete. Have zero interest in any new cartridges.

interesting to see the rifles and hear about the old cartridges ! myself the oldest rifle and cartridge i used for a deer was a very old Newton rifle in a 256 Newton cartridge i hand loaded . but my favorite for around rifle for deer and antelope the last 20 years is a single shot Ruger #1 with a Brux barrel in 257 Weatherby mag. i still like a fast cartridge . but i will be turning 70 this year and my young grandson will be sitting with me in my deer stand so we will be using another single shot with less recoil a Ruger #1 257 Roberts . i feel single shots are a little safer to use and teach a young hunter to make that 1st shot count makes a safer better hunter for their future ,besides its his rifle and the land will be his too . > someday someone 50 years from now will say when were gone: boy that old 6.5 Creedmoor was once the new hot cartridge back in the day. thanks for pictures and comments on cartridges too ,Pete53

Grew up hunting in Alaska with WW2 relics .. 7,65 Argentine, 8x57 Mauser , 7x57 Mauser, 6.5x55 Swede & the almighty '30-06

With 7 brothers we went through thousands of rounds & the old man was happy to supply us with more mil surplus ammo

All of us were big '06 fans and most are to this day, but I've moved on to stuff that kills same at 4x the reach

It wasn't BS at all. The 190 outpenetrated anything in the 30-30 and thus made for a better large game rifle

.303 Savage 99 carbine. It’s a beauty, I put an aperture sight on it and shot a nice 5x5 this past season.

Humm...
Last December, I bought my only centerfire breechloader. She's a n.i.b condition, May of 1979 production, Remington 760 in .35 Remington.
I put a Leupold M8 4x ( 1978 production and also n.i.b.)on her in low rings and a standard mount.
This was my high school DREAM rifle.
She likes to put 3 under an inch at 100 yards with a variety of 200 grain bullets, with fair regularity, driven with 45 gains of LVR. Chrono'd velocities are 2280 fps/ 2300 ft lbs. I have a lovely target showing 10 shots at 100, 200 grain Sierra round noses, that measures 1 & 3/8ths.
Daaaang...

Interesting posts. I have enjoyed shooting and hunting with about anything, old and new.
My general habit is to buy something of interest, get dies and enough factory ammo to play with and then have once fired brass to handload, shoot a deer or two, then decide if that rifle/pistol/bow will be sold to help fund the next weapon of interest, or kept in the back of the safe.
Additionally a lifetime of also bow hunting has me focused on how close I can get to deer and coyotes, as well as taking them at what I consider ‘long range’. Longest range for me is 186 yards with a 308 from the prone position using a tree stump as a fine rest. Second longest deer range was 165 yards with a 250 Savage Ackley Improved. The rest of the 60 some deer were taken at an average of 36 yards with everything from a 22 Hornet to a 458 Win.
I guess the ‘oldest’ would be the 45/70.
No regrets, and I enjoyed them all.